my friend tarek has been doing some amazing community organizing in palestine — he’s been teaching classes for children with my other friend farah AND distributing water and providing iftar meals during ramadan throughout rafah! his brother just had a major orthopedic surgery he had to wait about a year for and since food and water is incredibly scarce he can’t properly recover. please donate to their efforts!!!
quick reminder: tarek isn’t just a word on your screen, he is my friend.
he’s 21, the same age as me. before the war he was studying to be a translator and he dreamt of voice acting, just like so many of you reading this. (he’s pretty good too actually.) he would probably not call himself a poet but every few days he posts something so beautifully worded that he might as well be a poet laureate. he recently wrote: “gaza is sick of being praised by anyone. gaza is tired that its image is on satellite tv. gaza is sick of its name in the sad poems. gaza is tired of the repeated endings.” the message is clear — sentiments are not enough, his people need HELP.
every day i tell him im doing everything i can. and it’s true, i am, but its barely anything, as i’m disabled and bedridden. i’ve kept that fact from him out of shame because i see what he has to endure each day, but i feel SO POWERLESS. every time an announcement breaks that more bombs have dropped in the night or more innocent people were gunned down in broad daylight, my heart sinks with terror and i wonder if i’ve lost my friend. it really would mean so much — not just to him, to me — if you could donate anything you can spare to tarek and his family. he deserves the whole world and more.
yesterday tarek almost got on a water distribution truck that was targeted with bombs. the day before his neighbors had their house bombed (during Eid) and that whole family died. please help my friend
You can never experience watching your favourite show for the first time again, but you CAN convince someone else to watch your favourite show and vicariously enjoy all their raw reactions to seeing it for the first time, which is honestly nearly as good.
I always hoped I’d just have enough money to replace my own identity documents after my divorce. I just thought I’d be able to save up and have the right moment show up. It never did, and now Trump is deporting legal residents into slavery in El Salvador without due process.
I am a naturalized citizen, I just need to be able to prove it so I can update my ID to a Real ID and renew my American and Canadian passports.
I would be so grateful if you shared my story even if you can’t donate. Even a good word goes a long way.✈️
Please share and donate to our journey to ensure Olivia can receive a copy of her naturalization documents so she can update her ID and passport.
This is an incredibly scary and stressful time for the both of us so please see it in your heart to help us prove Olivia is a citizen.
She was born in Canada to refugees from the Salvadoran Civil War who fled to Canada because of the U.S. backed junta which was massacring campesinos and anyone who protested. She naturalized as an adult in the United States and is a United States citizen.
But because she’s in document limbo right now and has Salvadoran parentage we’re worried doing nothing will mean potentially disastrous consequences but we’re also afraid to move forward without legal assistance. Your donation will help us both afford the costs of gaining copies and renewing documents as well as potential legal fees as we’re working with an immigration lawyer.
The Israeli army announces the resumption of the war on Gaza, with heavy shelling throughout the Gaza Strip. The sounds of explosions are very, very loud. We are in danger again.
More than 130 people were killed and 250 others were injured, most of them children and women, according to the initial toll from Israeli airstrikes on homes, schools, shelters, and tents housing displaced people in the Gaza Strip.
Holy god. It’s the bomb of all Drama at work today.
Okay it might be less insane than previously thought.
Basically I got in and there was an email that there was a new policy on lunch breaks which is that we are required to clock out for 30 minutes for a meal break. Which wouldn’t be a problem except we’re often staffing stores alone. And the company was like “You’re not allowed to close the store, though, just clock out and don’t get paid for 30 minutes.”
This made a lot of people very unhappy and was widely regarded as a bad move.
So our manager was trying to go over the changes and I was like, “So I’m required to clock out for 30 minutes even if I’m alone in the store for the day.” Yes.
“I am going to leave the store. I am legally allowed to leave if you are not paying me.” You will get written up.
“That violates the labor laws and this company has had to pay for these violations previously. I will leave and look at birds.”
After a very long very aggressive meeting it turns out we might be able to waive the break and still get paid but calls are flying and we still have the right to clock out and close the store if we are working alone all day. The company loves to pretend that we do not.
Step-by-step walkthrough of how to push back on wage theft! Make them spell it out!
“I will leave and look at birds” is such a perfect encapsulation of “that time is mine actually and I shall do with it as I please” and I love it.
Update on this: enough people were accurately reporting that they did not have the opportunity to take breaks because of this policy and the company had to pay a bunch of fines and then caved and sent us signs so we can close the store for our lunches.
ALT
